Orange Regional Medical Center among most improved hospitals

MIDDLETOWN — Orange Regional Medical Center has been named among the 100 hospitals with the most improved performance for the second year in a row.

Christian Livermore

MIDDLETOWN — Orange Regional Medical Center has been named among the 100 hospitals with the most improved performance for the second year in a row.

The hospital has been named in the 100 Top Hospitals Performance Improvement Leader study done by health-care business Thomson Reuters. The study identifies the hospitals with the fastest rates of consistent annual improvement over five years.

"Especially since both studies cover five-year periods, it certainly shows a strong sustained effort to deliver high quality performance across a broad spectrum of measures," said Thomson Reuters spokesman David Wilkins.

This year's study covered data from 2002-2006; last year's covered data from 2001-2005.

"It's an honor to be named in the study," said hospital spokesman Rob Lee. "Our quality improvement initiatives are ongoing. It's something we do all the time."

Hospitals named in the study had fewer than expected patient deaths and adverse safety events, increased expenses only 2.5 percent during the five-year study period on average, increased profit margin from less than 1 percent to 6.9 percent, and reduced average length of stay by nearly a day, despite greater severity of illness, according to Thomson Reuters.